Acer Ferrari 1100

The 250GB hard disk is spacious and there's also a slot-loading DVD drive, a media card reader, Bluetooth 2.0, three USB2 ports, FireWire and a handy fingerprint reader.

Acer Ferrari 1100
Acer's 12.1in Ferrari 1100 is essentially an upgrade to the Ferrari 1000. It comes with one of AMD's latest Turion 64 X2 processors and is the first laptop we've seen to include 4GB of RAM and the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate edition.

Opening the lid reveals more subtle styling than the previous model. The small keyboard is comfortable to use and the touchpad is spacious. Below it on the front edge are two switches for Bluetooth and WiFi. Above the keyboard on the right-hand side are touch-sensitive shortcut keys, which are lit by blue LEDs. They're customisable, but are set to launch Outlook, Internet Explorer and the Ferrari World website.

The 250GB hard disk is spacious and there's also a slot-loading DVD drive, a media card reader, Bluetooth 2.0, three USB2 ports, FireWire and a handy fingerprint reader. Other useful features include VGA and S-video ports and a Bluetooth VOIP phone, which can be stored (and recharged) in the ExpressCard/54 slot. The glossy 12.1in screen has a resolution of 1,280x800 and was bright and sharp in our tests.

In our benchmarks, the Turion 64 X2 TL-66 processor scored 185 overall. This is by no means an outstanding score, but battery life is a bigger priority for anyone choosing an ultra-portable laptop. The 1100 lasted for four hours and nine minutes in our light-use test, which is an average result.

Like many other laptops, the 1100 has Dolby Virtual Surround; the effect was surprisingly good when watching DVDs. Above the screen is an integrated webcam.

The ATI Mobility Radeon X1270 graphics card isn't powerful enough for even older games. In our Call of Duty 2 test it scored 3.7fps. Lowering the resolution to 800x600 and turning off anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering only boosted this to a dismal 6.9fps.

Build quality is very good, and the screen is protected by a carbon fibre lid. At this price, though, the one-year warranty is far too stingy. In fact, we found little to justify the steep price. The Bluetooth mouse and VOIP phone don't add much value, and neither does the printed user manual, even if it was one of the most helpful we've seen. The luxury packaging might make you feel you've spent your money well, but there's no hiding the fact that you're paying a premium for the Ferrari name.

If the whole case was made from carbon fibre we might like the Ferrari 1100 more, but the 2kg weight isn't particularly light. We can't see many users benefiting from Vista Ultimate 64-bit, either, and few will need 4GB of RAM - both are unnecessary expenses. If you're a huge Ferrari fan and have cash to spare the 1100 won't disappoint, but for everyone else it's poor value.

System Specifications
2.3GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-66, 4GB RAM, 250GB disk, ATI Mobility Radeon X1270 graphics, DVD+/-RW +/-DL DVD-RAM, 12.1in widescreen LCD, one-year return-to-base warranty, 2kg
Author: Mark Forbes
Computer Shopper Online



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